Accounts Payable Topics

• american payroll association
• accounts payable automation
• walking fingers
• invoice number
• fraudulent operators
• employer practices
• liability account
• approval status
• refund check
• ripoffs
• accounting software
• reference point
• invoices
• staff member
• cheques
• directory listings
• credit cards
• accountants
• repository
• advertisements

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Accounts Payable, Accounts Payable

Householders usually track and pay on a monthly basis by hand using cheques or credit cards. In a business, there is usually a much broader range of services in the A/P file, and accountants or bookkeepers usually use accounting software to track the flow of money into this liability account when they receive invoices and out of it when they make payments. Increasingly, large firms are using specialized Accounts Payable Automation to automate the paper and manual elements of processing an organization's invoices.

It is the repository of all significant information about the company's suppliers. It is the reference point for accounts payable when it comes to paying invoices.

However, A/P staff should become familiar with a few common problems, such as "Yellow Pages" ripoffs in which fraudulent operators offer to place an advertisement. The walking-fingers logo has never been trademarked, and there are many different Yellow Pages-style directories, most of which have a small distribution. According to an article in the Winter 2000 American Payroll Association's Employer Practices , "Vendors may send documents that look like invoices but in small print they state "this is not a bill." These may be charges for directory listings or advertisements. Recently, some companies have begun sending what appears to be a rebate or refund check; in reality, it is a registration for services that is activated when the document is returned with a signature." In accounts payable, a simple mistake can cause a large overpayment. A common example involves duplicate invoices. An invoice may be temporarily misplaced or still in the approval status when the vendors calls to inquire into its payment status. After the A/P staff member looks it up and finds it has not been paid, the vendor sends a duplicate invoice; meanwhile the original invoice shows up and gets paid. Then the duplicate invoice arrives and inadvertently gets paid as well, perhaps under a slightly different invoice number.

Source: Wikipedia > Accounts Payable